On February 17, 2023, Maute group financier and sympathizer Oscar Gandawali along with gang members led by Lomala Baratamo Mandoc ambushed Lanao del Sur governor Mamintal Adiong Jr. in the town of Maguing, Philippines in an attempt to assassinate him.
While Adiong Jr. and another staff member were injured in the assassination attempt, three police officers and a driver escorting his convoy were killed.
Maguing is located in an area of the Philippines that was once controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), an Islamist militant group based in Bangsamoro.
When MILF signed a permanent ceasefire with the Philippine government in 2014, many of its supporters defected to the Islamic State-affiliated Abu Sayyaf or created their own Islamist gangs.
[3] At around 4pm in barangay Delimbayan, the convoy was ambushed by Gandawali and his supporters from a roadside ditch, killing four policemen and injuring Adiong Jr. and his staff member Ali Macapado Tabao.
[4] By February 22, the Lanao del Sur police had identified ten suspects involved in the ambush, but only named Gandawali and Kumander Lumala.